Clinical Lycanthropy?
by Rae Logan
Summary: TD SideStory. Something is very wrong with Mephiles. After a simple mission with Shadow and Rouge backfires, he falls terribly ill with several relapses. After an analysis from Dr. Thizon, it is discovered that Mephiles' health could reach critical.


Whoa, dang! This little puppy is 24 pages long! This is the result of a weeks worth of tying to make an early Halloween Special fic, which I can't wait any longer to give to you.

The placement of this story in the Teaching Darkness Universe probably takes place after Relapse and quite possibly after Memories. This was one story that needed to be done.

Inspired by the oncoming release of Sonic Unleashed, this is an all new type of story featuring a once and only time appearance of the Mephiles WereHog I sketched up on DeviantArt. Check my page to see him if you want.

I hope you all love this little treat. Usual rules as followed. Please enjoy...

* * *

It was supposed to be a simple mission, and this wasn't foreseen.

Mephiles was allowed to accompany Shadow and Rouge, given that he too had experience with the egg shaped Human.

"I'll tell you what…" He growled lowly, shaking his head as Rouge had split from the group to find the Emerald. "It's because of this guy that I not only immediately dislike Humans… but anybody with the title of 'Doctor' as well…"

"But he's more of a doctor in robotics and technology…" Shadow reminded him.

"Whatever… I still hate him…" Mephiles shook his head again. "I hate him… I hate his androids… I hate what he does… I hate what he's done…"

"I get the point…"

Mephiles took a look at the Emerald Radar, which him and Shadow had to share because GUN only issued two between them and Rouge. The light began to glow red and beep faster.

"We're right on it." He said, looking up. "How much you wanna bet it's that red one I hate so much?"

"I don't take sucker bets…"

"Wise choice, Shadow…"

They stopped at a door, and pressed their ears to it.

"He's definitely in there…" Shadow nodded.

"Want me to scope out the place?"

"If you could…"

Mephiles nodded and closed his eyes with a sigh, melting into his shadowy form. He then slipped under the door, leaving Shadow alone for a little while.

After a short time, he returned, forming back into his normal self.

"It's there alright…" Mephiles confirmed, nodding. "It's not too well guarded… but it might just be a trap."

"Maybe…" Shadow agreed. "We should find out how to get in together…"

"Can't you Chaos Control?"

"I don't want to unless I need to. We might need it to bail out of here if something goes wrong."

"But won't the Chaos Emerald amplify how many times you can use it?"

"Yes… but if we can't get the Emerald… we need a back up plan." Shadow lifted his arm and hit a few keys on a small keypad strapped to his arm by his Ring. "Rouge… we've found it… I'm sending the coordinate in the base…"

"Okay… I'll be right there…" They heard her say.

"Shadow…" Mephiles had an idea. "You think there's a key pad for the door? Maybe if we rewire it or something… we can get the door open without setting off an alarm."

"If it is… it might be hidden."

"Leave it to me…"

Mephiles melted and within minutes, he was in the workings of the door and altering as much as he could. A few sparks came from the door and finally it slid open.

"Nice job."

"Thank you."

A look around the room revealed it to be quite unimpressive. The red Emerald was in a large glass tube, which was unguarded.

"Want me to get in there?" Mephiles asked.

"I don't know… this is the red one… you always have a bad reaction with this one…"

"I'll be careful."

Before Shadow could protest, Mephiles had already became mist and had now managed to slip the cracks in the tube and reformed for a moment to grab the Emerald. Shadow held his breath…

…

…

…

"That's weird…" Mephiles frowned.

"What?"

"This Emerald isn't doing anything to me… I usually have a reaction like you said…"

"That's because it's a fake."

Shadow spun around to find Dr. Eggman sitting in a chair at the far end of the room, a smirk on his face as he leaned the chair back.

"Fake?" Mephiles growled.

"That'd explain it not being guarded much and no reaction…"

Still holding the fake, Mephiles melted and squeezed through the cracks again, forming right beside Shadow.

"What are you doing with a fake one in there?"

"Because this one is the real one." Eggman held up the real one in his hand, allowing the light to hit it just right.

Mephiles' eyes widened as a familiar feeling came over him. He suddenly felt the urge to snatch the Emerald from the Human and use it to-

Shadow saw the reaction he was having already and pulled him away and behind him swiftly. Mephiles snapped out of it sharply, and quickly averted his eyes to the floor, mumbling an apology as he held the fake tightly in his hands.

"I see our little crystal friend has a thing for this Emerald…" The Human grinned, shifting the Emerald from hand to hand.

"Just shut up and give it to us!" Shadow barked. He was losing his patience.

"Very well… I've grown tired of this anyway…"

Then he tossed it.

Mephiles caught a glimpse of it in the air and immediately reacted. Before Shadow could catch it, he had already jumped forward and caught it himself.

"What are you doing?!"

Before Mephiles could react and say something, the real and the fake one began to glow oddly.

The real one, held out in front of him with his right hand, flashed and sent a spark at the fake one which was held closely to his chest. The fake one sent out an electric charge which caused Mephiles to tense up as it sent a jolt at him. He clenched his teeth and flashed an expression of pain on his face.

A bright flash, a scream of agony, and a **THUD **later, Mephiles had fallen to the ground on his front, still holding the real and the fake tightly in his hands.

Shadow looked around quickly to find that Eggman had left already, which was no big surprise. Eggman had a habit of leaving when the plan took a turn for the worst.

Shadow knelt down and wasted no time in taking the real and the fake out of the crystal hedgehog's hands, then rolled him onto his back to check him over.

He was still alive, but simply knocked out. He was breathing in a steady rhythm, his mouth half open and his body limp, like a rag doll.

Shadow checked his hands, particularly the one holding the real Emerald. There was a burn on one of the palms, but it was easily treatable, as was a smaller and less noticeable one on his other hand, which had held the real Emerald. How odd, considering that the fake was the one that sent the electric jolt.

However, he was unconscious at the time, and that meant Shadow had to get him out of there. He lifted his arm and hit a few keys on the keypad. White noise and finally a bit of static.

"Rouge?"

"Yes?"

"We got the Emerald, but there's been a bit of an accident…" Shadow explained, looking at Mephiles.

"What happened?"

"Meph tried to grab it holding a fake and he got hit with a surge of Chaos Energy. He's knocked out right now…"

"Is he okay?"

"Aside from a burn or two, yes, I think so…"

"Where's Dr. Eggman?"

"He left after Meph hit the ground. I didn't see him leave."

"Figures… Stay there… I'll find you and we'll take him home…"

"Okay…" Shadow nodded and signed off, then took another look at Mephiles. Maybe he was imaging it… but his fur seemed paler now…

* * *

A few hours later led them to now tending to Mephiles, who had now inexplicably run a terribly high fever.

He had yet to wake up, but he was shifting around uncomfortably on the couch, his fur and quills a bit of a mess.

Every now and then, he would gasp deeply as if he couldn't catch his breath, and gave a whimpering moan if something made contact with him.

"I bet you that fake Emerald had something to do with this." Shadow concluded as he removed the damp cloth for the fourth time during the hour and replaced it with a new one. Mephiles raised his partly wrapped hand up to push Shadow's away with a moan. "What's his temperature now?"

Rouge had had to hold him still to take his temperature, worried that he might break the thermometer with his movements, or end up swallowing it. She slipped it out of his mouth and read it out loud.

"It says that it's one-oh-five-point-four."

"No wonder he's so sick right now!" Shadow exclaimed, placing the cloth back on after Mephiles had managed to work it off from moving. "That's a high grade fever! We need to bring it down or it could get worse."

"But how? Just about anything we would give him would react in one way or another."

"It's either that, or wait it out and hope that it doesn't get higher."

After a short while, it had been decided the Tylenol was the best choice. He was likely to dissolve into fits of laughter, but it would help bring his fever down.

The problem was getting him to take it in this state.

Shadow held his head back, trying to encourage him to open his mouth. This didn't work, so Shadow carefully pried his mouth open, prompting Mephiles to struggle against his hold. Rouge quickly handed him the pill and he placed it on the crystal hedgehog's tongue, quickly forcing his mouth shut to keep it there. Mephiles tried to pull away, thrashing against his hold with enough force to make Rouge try to hold him down as well.

Within minutes, he quieted down, and they let go, watching him carefully for any signs of a reaction. He simply rolled over, whispering a sigh under his breath.

* * *

After an hour, his fever started to go down slowly, and several hours after that he started to wake up.

With effort, he opened his eyes with a few blinks, and looked around before resting his eyes on them.

He seemed a little listless, and overall confused.

"There was a reaction with the real and the fake Emerald…" Shadow explained. "You ran a fever after you passed out."

"… I feel… odd…"

"How so?"

"… I… don't feel right…"

"You had a pretty high fever a few hours ago." Shadow added, hoping this would explain it for him. "High grade. We had to force you to take Tylenol to bring it down…"

"… How'd it work..?"

"Pretty good, I think… you just fell asleep after you took it."

"… My head hurts…" Mephiles brought his hand to his forehead to show where he meant.

"You still have a bit of a fever; it's just not so bad right now."

"… I… I… don't feel well right now…"

"What do you mean?"

Mephiles brushed his tongue against his teeth before replying faintly: "… I feel dizzy… and weak… and I keep seeing little lights… flashing in front of my eyes…"

_That can't be good… _Shadow wondered inwardly. "Anything else?"

The sick hedgehog nodded slowly before bringing his other hand to his head, and briefly flashing an expression of pain on his face.

"… I feel a little… lightheaded as well… and a bit… out of breath…"

Before anything else could be said, Mephiles suddenly tensed up and started twitching uncontrollably. His eyes rolled back and his arms dropped to his sides as he continued to convulse, moaning weakly as he did.

"Oh, God! He's having a _seizure!_" Shadow exclaimed as he and Rouge took no time in responding quickly and both held him down to reduce the risk of him getting hurt during it. The bat and the hedgehog could feel his muscles twitching and spasming under their restraint.

Rouge removed a glove from her hand and pressed her hand to his forehead. It was still hot.

"The fever may have gone down, but it's still high."

"Do you think that's what's causing this?"

"It could be… or something else…"

"What do you mean?"

"We know that Mephiles' body functions quite differently than anyone else's." Rouge said, bringing her hand away from his head and placing it on his chest and rubbing it in circles trying to calm him down. "This could be the reaction from the pill, or the fever, or even something underlying the whole problem altogether."

"Or he could just be very sick?" Shadow added questioningly.

"Maybe… but that's quite sudden for an inconvenient illness. Especially after that Emerald reaction you said happened." Rouge continued her hopefully soothing petting of Mephiles, who was beginning to stop twitching. He was still spasming occasionally, but at least he was beginning to regain consciousness.

He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed softly before swallowing and looking up at them.

Still twitchy, he rested his eyes for a moment on Rouge's hand, and looked back up at them, taking note that he was being held down for some reason, and asked: "… W-wha… what just happened..? I feel awful…"

Shadow looked at Rouge nervously, wondering if they should tell him. Rouge nodded uneasily and Mephiles furrowed his brow in confusion.

"… Are… Do… Are you aware of what just happened?"

"… No… that's why I asked…"

Sigh.

This was tough.

"Meph… you just… had a seizure."

"… I blacked out?"

"No." Rouge shook her head. "The kind that you twitch during it."

"… That can't be right…" Mephiles shook his head lightly, not wanting to agitate his headache any more than it was. "… I don't… I've _never_ had that happen before…"

"It might even be not all that serious…" Shadow offered the distressed hedgehog on the couch.

"… How is losing consciousness… and twitching like that… 'not all that serious'..?"

"It could just a one time thing with the fever, or even the pill we had to get you to take could have caused it."

"… I hope so…"

"How are you feeling otherwise?"

"… Sick… I don't want to do anything… but try to sleep it off…"

"That's probably for the best." Shadow said as he and Rouge removed their hands. "You were out of it for hours after those Emeralds backfired on you. Please let us know if you need anything…"

"… I will…"

* * *

By morning, Mephiles was feeling a lot better.

His head was clearer, he could breathe right, and it felt like his fever had faded away.

He was already up and about by nine, digging around the pantry for something to eat, being as he didn't get to the night before because of his mysterious illness.

"Felling better, I see?" Shadow added, still watching him closely as he ate his breakfast.

"Oh, yes… much." Mephiles said, reading the labels carefully to make sure he didn't eat anything with milk in it. The last thing he needed was to get sick from his allergy after the scare of his seizure the night previous. "… I just don't understand what caused that seizure last night…"

"Well, it could have been the pill…"

"What did you say I took again?"

"Tylenol…"

"But last time I had that, I couldn't stop laughing." Mephiles looked behind him to look at Shadow. "It would make sense that that was the reaction again."

"But you also had a fever, and that reaction with the real and fake Emeralds could be a contributing factor."

"Well, at least I'm feeling better now… Sorry about causing this…"

"It's not your fault for getting sick." Shadow said a little surprised.

"But it _was_ my fault for trying to get the Emerald…" Mephiles shook his head and returned to his task. "I dunno what came over me at the moment, but all I know was that I felt this need to grab it…"

"Well, at least you're okay now…"

"True…"

Almost as if he spoke too soon, Mephiles was hit by a sudden wave of vertigo. He eased a hand to his head, clenching his other hand to the door of the pantry to help steady himself. His vision darkened somewhat, and the feeling of lightheadedness made itself known once again. He was blinded for a moment, and he froze, half tempted to scream in fright.

Then, almost as quickly as it came, it was gone.

Mephiles blinked his vision clear, looked up and looked back at Shadow, who was reading a section of the newspaper as he ate. Shadow didn't seem to have seen that.

_I'm probably still tired from last night… _He thought to himself as he pulled a couple of packets of microwavable oatmeal off the shelf. _It's probably nothing to worry about… I might just be hungry…_

He kept telling himself that as he waited for the oatmeal to finish heating in the microwave. The timer went off and he reached for the door, stopping suddenly when an unsettling twitch ran through him, and he gasped softly as his hands shook. Then as quickly as _it_ came… it disappeared.

He looked up to make sure Shadow hadn't seen him do that and he hurried out of the room, leaving his food behind, still repeating his little mantra to himself.

* * *

Later in the afternoon, he had a stomachache. One that was bad enough that he had been sick a few times, the first time he had been caught completely unawares and ended up throwing up on himself and the couch before he knew his stomach was that upset.

He was now throwing up in a bucket he had been given while Rouge cleaned up the mess.

"… I-I-I'm s-so s-s-sorry…" Mephiles stammered, trying to hide his face in his hands after he was done for the time being. He was without a doubt ashamed, his pale face darkening a few shades of red. "… It j-just happened t-too fast for me t-to react… please don't tell Shadow…"

Shadow had left earlier for some unexplained reason that only Rouge knew.

"I don't know… with you getting sick like that again so soon after yesterday…" Rouge said, taking a clean rag and helping him clean off the vomit from his fur. "I think we should let him know. He was really worried about you last night after that fit you had."

"… C-can we leave the part about me throwing up on myself and the couch out..? He doesn't need to now that part, right..?"

"We'll just say you got sick again…"

"… Thanks, Rouge…" He smiled weakly. "… I just wish I knew I'm so sick right now…" His face paled and he quickly picked up the bucket again, heaving roughly into it. He felt Rouge rub his back gently, and somehow his stomach started to settle down. He swallowed back the drool and sick feeling and whispered shakily: "… Th-thank you…"

"It's probably stomach flu…" The bat said.

"What..?"

"You probably caught a virus, and it's making you sick."

"Why would I have caught a virus..? I haven't been around anybody sick…"

"It might have been something you ate."

"But I check all the labels before I eat anything…"

"It won't tell you if there is something wrong with it though…" Rouge brought up. "In any case, we should probably have a doctor see you…"

She looked at him and saw that he looked like he was about to be sick again at the suggestion.

"… D-do we _have_ to..?" He said pleadingly.

"If you want to get better…"

"Maybe it'll go away…" He added hopefully. He really disliked doctors.

"Not if it's really stomach flu. On average, it lasts up to ten days."

"Can we go tomorrow then..? I feel really tired right now…"

"Only if you promise to go."

"I will…" Mephiles said reluctantly.

"Okay, I think I've got it cleaned up now…" Rouge said finally, getting up and picking up the bucket to dump it out. "You just lie down and rest for the rest of the day and all night. Let us know if you need _any_thing…"

"Uh huh…" Mephiles was too tired give a proper answer and nodded in a compromise.

* * *

By eight that night, Mephiles had worsened.

He was hallucinating and believing his nightmares to be real.

"… _Their blood… it's on my hands…_" He whispered, shaking his head as he kept rubbing his hands together to get rid of the imaginary blood. "_… It won't come off… help me… it won't come off…_"

Rouge placed her hand on his forehead. His fever had returned, though seemingly not as high. His eyes wandered the room as he rubbed the palm of his burnt hand.

"… _It's everywhere… Get it off me…_" He moaned, catching his bottom lip between his teeth.

Rouge took a good look at him. His eyes were half closed and glassy, as if he was daydreaming. His bottom lip was caught between his teeth and his jaw quivered as his eyes began to water. His muzzle was flushed a deep red around his cheeks, and cold sweat was beading up and dripping down his face.

She caught him by the wrists to get him stop scratching his arms, which was beginning to do in his frenzied state.

"Mephiles, please listen to me…" She said, hoping he could hear her. "There is no blood. You're seeing things because you're very ill right now. I need you to calm down…"

"… _It's in my quills…_"

"It's not there…"

"… _Get it off me…_"

"You're seeing things…"

"… _Shadow… help me… please…_" He slipped a hand free and reached out to an empty part of the room.

Apparently, he thought he saw Shadow, but Shadow wasn't back yet from his errand he had to run.

"Shadow's not here right now…"

"… _Yes, he is… He's over there… Shadow…_"

"You're seeing things…" She tried to remind him, clenching her teeth at not getting anywhere on this.

"… _It's everywhere… help…_" His eyes rolled back and he fell limp, his arm slipping out of Rouge's hand as he mumbled something that couldn't be understood.

Rouge couldn't help but notice that his arm felt cold while his forehead felt quite the opposite.

"I have to get him help…" She said, backing away picking up the phone.

She called the hospital, and after some explaining, she was patched through to Dr. Thizon.

"What seems to be the problem?"

"Mephiles has gotten very ill in the course of twenty four hours." Rouge explained, taking a look at the sick hedgehog, who was now whimpering in fright and shifting around uncomfortably where he was laying down, a cold shiver running through him. "He was sick to his stomach a few times, had and has a high fever, he's shaking, and he's hallucinating."

"Anything else?"

"He recovered for a bit this morning and was doing fine until this afternoon. It's almost like a relapse." The bat said. "He also had a seizure last night when his fever spiked too high. I'm afraid to take him to where you are because I think he might just get worse from being moved. I think something is very wrong with him…"

"Try to keep the fever at bay with some ice packs and I'll try to make it over there to check him out. It sounds pretty serious."

"Do you need our address?"

"No-no. I can just pull up any of your files and find it there."

"Thank you. I'll see you then." She hung up the phone and retreated to the kitchen to dig an ice pack out of the freezer. She wrapped it in a dish towel and returned to the living room to place it on his forehead.

Immediately, Mephiles raised his hand slowly to pull it off, moaning softly: "_... Uhh… It's… too cold…_"

"I know… but it's supposed to help…" Rouge pushed his hand back down, and waved her hand in front of his face, relieved somewhat when his eyes started to follow it. "Do you know what's going on right now?"

He looked away from following the hand and locked gazes with her.

"… Not really… but… I feel so weak right now…"

"You had a bit of a relapse. You're still pretty ill right now, so Dr. Thizon's on his way over."

"… I thought… you said we'd do that… tomorrow..?"

"We were, until you got worse."

"… Where's Shadow..? Is he back yet..?"

"No…"

"… Where is he..?"

"He went out earlier to pick up a few things and he wanted to stop off at a bookstore on the way back. It can take him hours to pick out a book."

"… I hope… he gets back soon… It's… already d-dark outs-side…" Mephiles was starting to stutter from weakness. He frowned and tried to speak more clearly, but Rouge held up her hand to signal to him to stop.

"Please, try to save your breath. You just finally managed to regain yourself… Don't throw yourself back into that nightmare…"

He just nodded slowly.

Just then, Shadow returned, managing to get the door opened, balancing bags and bags of stuff in his arms.

"We need to think about getting a car…" He muttered, finding a place to set them down. He looked up and saw that Mephiles was lying on the couch, displaying telltale signs of illness as he looked up back at him. "What's up?"

"Mephiles had a bit of a relapse this afternoon..." Rouge explained. "He got sick again, and his fever came back."

"But he was fine this morning!" Shadow exclaimed in surprise.

"I know… but that's why Dr. Thizon's coming over to check him out…"

"Why can't we take him there?"

"Because he was just too sick at the time to do that…"

"Are you feeling a little better now?" Shadow said, directing this at the sick hedgehog.

"… I-its hard t-to t-tell… B-but I th-think so…" Mephiles pulled the blanket up over his nose to half hide his face. "… Only j-just a little… b-but at least I c-can th-think s-somewhat…"

"Just how sick was he?"

"His brain was playing tricks on him… Bad tricks…"

"Ohh…" Shadow said slowly with a bit of a nod. "How bad?"

"As bad as a fever can make them."

"… I'm r-right here, y'know!" Mephiles said, realizing that he was now being ignored.

"Oh… sorry…"

"… My brain is _f-fine_… By th-the way…"

"We weren't suggesting that it wasn't…" Shadow said. "Rouge was just saying that you had a fever that was making you see things… It's pretty common…"

"… Oh… Right…"

Dr. Thizon came by not long after. As usual, Mephiles made it well known that he disliked doctors of any kind.

"You're not making this any easier…"

"… You're not making th-this any nicer for me…" Mephiles shot back clenching his teeth together, refusing for the tongue depressor to find its way into his mouth.

"Okay… Fine! Don't co-operate! Just get sicker for all I care!" The porcupine said, throwing his hands up in defeat.

"… Wait… wh-what..?" Mephiles was a little shocked by this.

"If you don't let me try to figure out what is wrong with you, you won't get _any_ better."

"… Well… I _hate_ being sick…"

"Then co-operate!"

Mephiles thought about it for a quick moment, and sighed, opening his mouth and sticking out his tongue, saying "Ahh…" with a bored and somewhat reluctant expression behind the eyes.

Thizon began with his examination, pressing the crystal hedgehog's tongue down and out of the way.

"Back of the throat seems fine…" He said, using another depressor to look around, Mephiles' eyes narrowing. "Might I add that your teeth are surprising well kept for someone of your age?"

"He's only had them for hardly a year…" Shadow added.

"What?"

"It's a long story… Starts ten years ago, heads to about two hundred years from now, comes back to here, a little bit in my head, and a Chaos Emerald that made him what he is now…"

"Uh… I'm probably better off not asking…" Thizon remarked, raising an eyebrow.

"Your tongue is very pink, Meph…" Shadow added with a bit of a smirk, causing Mephiles to blush deeply and pull his tongue back in and clamp his teeth together just as Thizon removed the depressors. "Very, girlish kinda pink…"

Mephiles simply blushed deeper and hid under his blanket.

"Oh, c'mon. I'm just messing with you…" Shadow laughed. Even Rouge giggled a bit.

"… S-still…" Mephiles voice came out from under his hiding spot. He lifted one end of it to look at them. "… I c-can't help what color my t-tongue is…"

The rest of the examination went quite well, until it was suggested that blood needed to be drawn for sampling and for a further analysis. At that point, Mephiles screamed rather loudly.

"Mephiles! It _needs_ to be done!" Rouge clamped her hands over her sensitive ears, which didn't like sounds like this.

For a sick hedgehog, Mephiles managed to put up a fight for this rather well.

First he snapped at them, then jumped off the couch and backed up into a corner. Shadow attempted to catch him, and he shot past him, screaming in protest.

However, due to his illness, his health got the better of him and his steps faltered a little and he collapsed to his knees, panting as he tried to catch his breath.

"… P-please don't…" He pleaded, looking up dizzily, fear a bit obvious in his expression. "… D-don't do this t-to me…"

"He's get going to take a bit of blood, just a bit, and test it at a lab to see what is wrong with you. What could you possibly be afraid of?" Shadow said, folding his arms and sighing.

"… Y-you have _no_ idea…" Mephiles folded his ears back as his mind started pulling up some vague memories of him and Iblis when the two were still Solaris in the Soleanna laboratory before his creation as "Mephiles". Their idea of "testing" and "experimenting", it seemed to him, were sending numerous volts of electricity through the slowly becoming unstable sun god.

This then brought him to his memory of containment in Eggman's base six months after his release from the scepter, where he was electrocuted for moving too much, trying to get the collar free from his neck or just because Eggman felt like it. It was because of these incidents that Mephiles feared some science and most medical practices.

"Just calm down, and this'll be over faster." Shadow assured him.

Mephiles gave a moan of discontent and brought his hands to his head and he lowered the rest of himself to the floor.

"… I'm not gonna like this…" He whispered, shaking his head.

* * *

He didn't… but it was done finally.

Sitting up woozily, he held a hand to his head and blinked, trying to clear his head.

"… Uhngh… I feel dizzy now…" He closed his eyes and moaned.

He felt a set of hands brace him under his arm and pull him to his feet. He opened his eyes and saw that Shadow was helping him back to the couch.

Once there, he rolled over on his side, curled up and fell asleep.

"Hopefully, I can find what is wrong with him…" Thizon removed his glasses and wiped their lenses, then placed them back onto his nose. "According to visual results, he seems to have a cold or the flu… but only a worse version of it."

"Well, he's only been sick a couple of times in his life, so maybe his immunities are a bit weak?" Rouge offered.

"He started getting sick after a reaction with a Chaos Emerald and a fake… could that be a cause?" Shadow added.

"I've heard of Chaos Emeralds being used for healing before…" Thizon said, packing up his things and placing a couple of vials of Mephiles' blood in fitted cases to avoid breaking. "I have no idea what effects a fake one could do…"

"I know from experience that a fake can be used like real one for Chaos powers…" Shadow said. "It's identical in feel and usage, but it's also unstable. Is it possible that Mephiles is being affected by it?"

"We'll have to see. Do you the fake?"

"Right here." Shadow picked it up off of the side table. "Why?"

"I might need it for analysis…" Thizon said, picking up his bag. "We've been recently studying Emeralds' effects on health, and we might find the answer to our mystery with him."

"Sounds like a good idea."

"I'll call as soon as possible when I find anything…" Thizon nodded. "Good night…"

"Good night…"

* * *

The next night, Mephiles was screaming in his sleep.

Screaming about his nightmares… about darkness that was surrounding him, suffocating him, drowning him… about demons and monsters that wouldn't leave him alone…

He was screaming for help… for someone to save him, to pull him free from the abyss that was keeping him hostage.

His voice was getting hoarse as he sobbed, feeling someone wrap an arm around his chest and pull him close to them, their other hand petting his head gently as a voice whispered softly and gently in his ear.

Taking deep breaths to calm down, he closed his eyes and leaned against the one who was holding him. Slowly, his nightmares faded from sight and he saw that he was still in the living room. He looked up and saw that Rouge was holding him and trying to calm him down. Shadow was drying Mephiles' face with a hand towel, now pressing it to the side of his head.

Mephiles shook feverishly, catching his breath sharply and clutching at his chest as he tried to breathe. He choked for a moment and gasped before he caught his breath again, and slumped against Rouge with a moan.

"Are you okay..?" She asked him as he panted heavily, his body shaking profusely.

He swallowed and looked up, easing a hand to his head and working his fingers into his quills. His eyes wandered the room for a moment before locking gazes with the bat. He stayed silent for a long while, hardly blinking.

Rouge repeated her question and Mephiles looked away, his face darkening several shades of red.

"… I'm fine now…"

"You are _not_ fine!" Shadow set the towel down and looked him in the eyes, frowning. "You have been very sick for the past two nights, and you just started screaming for no reason! _How_ can you be fine?"

"… It's n-nothing…"

"You were screaming about demons and stuff! That's obviously _some_thing!"

"… I-it's nothing…"

"How do you expect us to help you if you don't tell us what's going on with you?"

"_IT'S NOTHING!_" Mephiles yelled the loudest he had said anything in the past few days. His fur was on end and for a moment, his eyes lit up furiously with anger and annoyance as he pushed away from Rouge. "Just leave me alone! I'm being a bother to you anyway, _right?!_"

Shadow was taken aback by this. A little stunned, he blinked and tried to solve this.

"Who said you were? I'm trying to help you…"

"Only because you're sick of me being sick…" Mephiles growled, closing his eyes as vertigo started to make itself known again.

"Now you're just jumping to conclusions… are you okay?" Shadow said as Mephiles clutched his head with both hands and moaned.

"… I feel worse all of a sudden…" He murmured as he swayed from side to side, swallowing back something that was inching up and burning his throat. Soon, he was swallowing more frequently as drool was starting to pool up in his mouth. Sweat was glistening under his fur as he started shaking even more. "… Uhngh… I th-think I'm gonna be s-s-sick again…" And with that, he clamped a hand over his mouth and clutched his stomach with the other hand, his eyes getting wide as he started gagging roughly.

Immediately, he felt a wastebasket get shoved into his hand. Hardly given enough time to look up, he vomited into the wastebasket.

Coughing up the little amount of things he had in his stomach, he gasped and shuddered, pushing the wastebasket away when he was done.

Eyes glassy and shimmering with small tears, he looked up at Shadow, and then collapsed suddenly.

"_Mephiles!_"

He didn't hear them. He was out for the time being.

Shadow and Rouge braced him under his arms and pulled him back onto the couch again. He didn't move, and simply inhaled and exhaled deeply but slowly as if he simply passed out from exhaustion and fallen asleep. Rouge felt a gloveless hand to his face.

"His fever still feels the same…" She reported, looking back at Shadow. "I don't think it's any higher."

"_Why_ is he so sick?"

"I don't know, Shadow… I honestly don't know…" Rouge shook her head. "Dr. Thizon's supposed to be looking into it… So we can only wait…"

"Let's hope it's not too long of a wait…"

* * *

Dr. Eric Thizon was pacing around in the testing lab. He was the only one able to put time into doing these tests since everyone else had either gone home or were busy with other patients' needs.

"Besides… he's _your_ patient…" One of his colleagues reminded him.

"Ger, just because I'm his regular doctor doesn't mean you can't help me out…"

"Thizon, I'd love to, really, but I have my own patients to deal with."

"Fine!" Thizon tossed his hands up in the air, one hand holding his glasses. "Be that way. I'll just go at this alone!"

And here he was… alone…

Sigh…

He dropped down into his chair and leaned forward to look into the microscope. He had taken a few drops of Mephiles' blood samples to a slide and increased the magnification. He blinked.

Spiky looking blood cell clusters with hints of purple on the spike tips.

Shadow had mentioned before that he was the result of an experiment. He wondered if he had a previous blood sample to compare it to. He should, one was taken during Mephiles' admittance into the hospital after the serious injuries he had obtained.

Scooting the swivel chair back, he spun around to use the computer. Typing a few keys for an access code, he pulled up the list of names.

"Hmm… Dark was his last name… right..?"

He hit the control button and "F" and typed in: "_Dark, Mephiles_".

And error sound, and he groaned.

"_Great!_" He said sarcastically without looking up.

Now what?

He lifted his head and lifted his ears.

_Patient has recently changed their name in the past six months._

Typing in a few commands, his mood brightened when the new name popped up.

_Hedgehog, Mephiles_

"Section 6G…" He nodded and looked down the isles of file cabinet like drawers. "Better get started looking…" He got up and walked passed a few isles to get the sixes.

* * *

Mephiles jolted awake with a start and a gasp, sitting up in a fright.

Clamping his hands to his head, he looked around to find that he was alone.

A strange feeling was overtaking him and he clutched his head even tighter as a sharp pain shot through it.

The air was becoming harder to breathe and his chest heaved up and down as he tried so hard to anyway.

He was unable to speak as his body quivered, and he gritted his teeth together.

He suddenly pulled his hands back as the feeling of ten knifelike, razor sharp claws pierced into his skin. He looked down and gasped harshly, his eyes wide with shock as he stared in the dim light.

His claws had become longer and sharper, sparkling on the ends from the small amount of light that was in the room, his hands not looking at all like his own anymore.

In his terror, he also had begun to notice that his fangs were getting larger and longer as well… in fact, his entire body was changing.

Before he lost himself in insanity, he managed a choked scream of fright before he fell off the couch.

* * *

Thizon found section 6G, and was now shuffling through the slides, squinting behind his glasses to see the names written on the little labels.

"Hedgehog, Sonic … Hedgehog, Shadow… Hedgehog, Scourge… Ah! Hedgehog, Mephiles! Quite a few here…" He readjusted his glasses and picked up the samples and headed back to the workstation.

Putting a comparison slide under another scope, he made an interesting discovery.

Mephiles' blood cells were indeed spiky; however the older samples lacked any of the purple colorations.

Lifting his head up from the microscope, he looked at the fake Emerald. For the research purposes, he had also been given the real one.

"Shadow said that there was a reaction between the two…" Thizon started. "And he said that Mephiles had gotten sick just after the two reacted with each other… He's also said before that Mephiles' body reacts to things differently than we do… Hmmm…"

* * *

"Meph?" Shadow and Rouge had heard his cry of fear and went in the living room to investigate. Holding his hand back behind him to keep Rouge at a safe distance, Shadow peered over the back of the couch, then jumped back and cussed loudly, his fur on end.

Mephiles was digging his now sharp claws into the carpet, hissing and snarling as he twitched and writhed on the ground, his muzzle slowly becoming snout like, his tail lengthening and the crystals on the end forming into a large frayed end. His quills became shaggier and split into smaller clumps.

He growled and lifted his head, drool dribbling from his mouth as he rested his eyes on the two Mobians and lifted himself from the ground, tail snaking from side to side as he narrowed his eyes at the sight of Shadow.

He stood on his toes like a cat and hunched forward like a carnivorous dinosaur did. His ears twitched back and forth as he sniffed the air, his eyes widening as he took a few steps back and tilted his head.

"M-Mephiles..?" Shadow stammer in spite of himself and lifted his ears up in astonishment.

Over bit fangs gleamed as he opened his mouth in confusion, his pink tongue hanging out as he panted slightly, staring at the hedgehog with an uncomprehending look on his face.

Shadow took a cautious step forward and Mephiles' mind snapped.

He screeched in terror, causing Rouge to clamp her hands over her ears as he ran into the kitchen, knocking the table over as he tried to get out, the table hitting the cabinet and knocking several dishes to the floor. Deep scratches were left on the linoleum tiles as he slipped and scrambled up in a blind panic, yelping and wailing, finally stopping at the door. He took no time in finding a way out. Teeth clamped onto the doorknob and turned it from side to side, him pulling his head back forcefully to try to pull it loose. The door merely opened to Shadow's and Rouge's surprise and Mephiles hurried out into the night, whimpering all the way.

Still in shock about the whole thing overall, it took them a little while to realize what was going on and what had happened.

"We need to get a better set of doors…" Shadow quipped as they went after Mephiles.

* * *

The terrified creature entered the field outside of Westopolis. He stopped to think, his head swimming dizzily with questions that demanded answers.

What happened?

Where was he?

Who were they, the ones he had ran from, and why did they strike something in the back of his mind?

Why had he come here?

Was it on instinct?

If so, why?

And more importantly…

…

…

…

Why couldn't he remember his own name?

…

…

…

He scratched at the ground with the claws on his toes as he shifted his feet around in confusion.

So many questions that needed answers… so many… why?

* * *

"Wait… How are we going to deal with this?" Shadow halted and looked at Rouge. "I mean… really… what just happened and how do we fix this?"

"I dunno, but I do know that was Mephiles."

"No doubt about it… I could tell by the fur color and the eyes." Shadow shook his head. "But what happened to him and how are going to fix that?"

"I don't know." Rouge said slowly then sighed. "Why is it the oddities are attracted to him?"

* * *

Thizon set the real and the fake Emerald by a slide of an old sample of Mephiles' blood. Taking a quick step or two back, knowing that Emerald energy is unpredictable, he stared at it curiously for results.

The real one flashed and sent a spark to the fake one, which was closest to the slide. The fake glowed brightly for a moment and set a surge of energy at the slide, which the glasses cracked and shattered from the energy, sending several shards in different directions across the table.

Sighing to himself, he placed on some latex gloves to avoid further contamination of the samples and went over to clean up the mess.

To his surprise, the part of the slide with the drops of blood was relatively unharmed.

"I wonder…"

Taking the piece carefully, he set the shard under the microscope, positioning under the lense, unable to clamp it down because it was so small.

Blinking in bewilderment, the porcupine doctor saw that the solid red spiky blood cells had begun to slowly take on tinges of purple, not as much as the newer samples, but enough to take notice.

"So the reaction was the cause of the change in his blood cells, but are they also the cause of him being sick..?"

This needed further study and analysis.

* * *

Mephiles headed further into the small forest of trees. He had heard sounds that were coming closer and he wasn't sure if they were safe or not.

Twitching his ears, he picked up the sounds of murmurs and whispers, prompting him to fold his ears back. That meant that they were closer…

"… What do we do once we find him..?"

"… We'll have to figure this out as it goes along…"

They were looking for someone… most likely him…

He had to do something. He had to get to them before they got to him…

But what..?

He didn't like the idea of hurting something…

What if he scared them?

That might work…

Twitching his ears again, he predicted where they were and how he could sidestep around them.

His heart pounded with worry…

What if it didn't work..?

* * *

Thizon needed a control for this. Mephiles' blood was unusual, and he needed to use a normal sample.

Not feeling like he needed to waste a sample belonging to a patient, he came to the conclusion to use his own.

Plucking a quill from his head, he took it over to the sink and turned on the hot water to help sterilize it. He was simply going to prick himself carefully, and put the blood on a few slides.

The arm should be a good place… upper arm.

Clenching his teeth together, and knowing that a porcupine's quills were barbed on the ends, he rolled up his sleeve and swept the quill across his arm and quickly picked up a few slides. This was simply for science and helping someone, so he had no intention of making this a habit at all.

Once a few slides were set, he taped gauze to his cut, and continued with his study.

* * *

Waiting anxiously, his long tail waving back and forth, he listened and watch from his hiding spot carefully.

His tongue touched against his teeth, feeling the long fangs that hung out of his mouth.

Maybe after he scared them, he could have time to collect his thoughts and find some answers to the questions that were making him so dizzy…

A twig snapped and his gasped as he was pulled from him thoughts.

The bat and the hedgehog were in the small clearing in front of him.

He had his chance…

He charged at the hedgehog and slammed him to the ground, baring his teeth as he pinned him down with his wrapped clawed hands.

Growling as menacingly as he could, he narrowed his eyes at the ebony and crimson hedgehog and hissed.

The hedgehog stared at him with wide eyes, only seeming surprised rather than scared.

He sniffed the air round him and widened his eyes.

Why was the scent familiar?

Something was telling him not to do this to the hedgehog…

He loosened his hold on the hedgehog a bit and leaned forward, sniffing at his quills. So familiar…

Something hit him sharply on the nose and he jumped back with a yelp, clutching his paws to his face.

He looked up and saw that the bat had hit him on the nose with a stick she had found on the ground. She was staring at him with a halfway between shocked and reprimanding look on her face.

"Let him go, Mephiles!"

The hedge-beast lifted his head and widened his eyes, folding his ears back. Who was Mephiles? Was it him? Was he Mephiles? He couldn't remember if it was true or not, but they seemed to call him that…

Maybe it was a trap. A trick! Maybe they were toying with him! That had to be it!

Growling deeply, he turned tail and ran off, ignoring their pleas for him not to go. He wasn't going to fall for it.

He ran further and further, panting and gasping. The dizzy thoughts were becoming worse. He stumbled and staggered for a moment, shaking his head and stopping to lean against a tree. He placed a wrapped paw to his head and tapped the fingers to it lightly as he tried to sort his mind out.

He lowered himself to the ground, his tail wrapping around him as he tensed up. A puddle was before him and he caught sight of his reflection.

Soft pale red sclera with lime green irises. A pale muzzle color, the inside of his small ears taking the same color. His fur was a very dark blue, his accent color and marking a soft sky blue. He had shaggy white fur on his chest, and a long tail was snaking back and forth in curiosity. He tilted his head and saw the clumps of quill-like fur that was ended off in sky blue crystals, as if the ends had been dipped in them. There was a stripe starting on his forehead that extended to a top clump, the front end of it resembling an arrow. His ears were tipped with tufts of the crystals, and his eyebrows were the same. Pearly white fangs hung out of his mouth, making it hard to keep drool from seeping out of it.

He found this form before him familiar, but all the same still a stranger to him. Why? This was him, wasn't it..?

…

…

…

…

And…

…

…

Who was this "Mephiles"?

* * *

Thizon placed the sample on the table and set the Emeralds beside it in the same fashion.

…

…

…

Nothing…

…

…

Nothing at all.

"Interesting…" He noted, taking off his glasses and wiping them with his jacket. "Perhaps the Emeralds react only with his blood…"

Maybe if the Emeralds did that… it was likely that they could reverse it.

He needed to share his discovery with them. After all… he promised.

Scooting back and picking up the phone, he dialed their number.

Nothing… just an answering machine.

He hung up. He'd rather tell them personally, instead of having it relayed.

He took another look through the microscope and frowned.

The purple had spread a little more over the new of Mephiles' blood and the blood cells were shrinking.

That wasn't normal at all.

He looked at the vials and saw that they were both only three-fourths full.

Weird… he had only used a few drops.

This wasn't good.

He needed to let them know.

He grabbed his bag and packed the vials, the Emeralds and a first aid kit… just in case…

It was time for him to make another house call.

* * *

He shook his head as an onset of vertigo started take hold of him.

He was suddenly feeling very dizzy and lightheaded, his vision swimming back and forth.

Clasping his other paw to his head, he groaned and dug his back feet into the dirt. He whimpered under his breath, rubbing his face against the grass as he did.

He saw a shape moving cautiously toward him, and his eyes widened, making his blurred vision even blurrier. He growled as he tried to get up, his legs not able to hold his weight, causing him to collapse and fall several times.

"… Shh… it's okay…" A voice sounded from the black figure, taking care as to not further scare the creature. "… It's okay… Mephiles… calm down…"

That name again. His ears perked up and he squinted to see better. It was the hedgehog.

The hedgehog held up his hands to show that he wasn't going to hurt him.

"… Do you remember who I am..?"

The creature tilted his head to the side.

"… Do you know who you are..?"

He shook his head, clenching his teeth as a spasm of pain ran through him. He looked up at the hedgehog with hurt behind his eyes.

The hedgehog understood both meanings.

He sighed.

"… Would you like to remember..?" He held his hand out and grabbed the hedge-beast's wrist, wrapping his fingers around the fur covered crystals.

The creature widened his eyes at the flash of a memory of running away, a hand catching him by the wrist and pulling him away from danger. There were many of these, it seemed.

Finally, the creature managed to voice a question he wanted to ask, bewildered that he was able to speak.

"… Who… Who are… you..?"

The voice came a bit scattered, as if he was in a daydream. It came also as a bit of a growl, as if he was forcing himself to say it.

The hedgehog almost gave a small laugh. It had sounded exactly as how Mephiles had questioned him when he had been sealed in the Scepter of Darkness.

In spite of himself, he responded with: "I'm Shadow… Shadow the Hedgehog…" Then he paused and added: "… Your friend…"

"… Sa… Sha… Sha-ow… Shadow..?" He was having problems pronouncing that. He looked up at him and found that he was now kneeling beside him, taking a good look at him. Shadow frowned with concern.

"You're in pain, aren't you?"

His response was a mere groan and the muscles under his hand tightened then relaxed for a moment. Drool was seeping out of his mouth profusely as he clenched his teeth and rested his head on the ground.

"Mephiles?"

He merely flickered an ear to tell him he could still hear him, but he was starting to feel too weak to move much.

His eyes now looked duller, and stared right passed Shadow. His body twitched and spasmed, his wrapped paws clenching their digits around the grass weakly, his tail flat against the ground, the tip barely twitching, his head tilted to the side as he groaned faintly, which instead sounded more like a moan. The arm Shadow was holding felt very hot under his glove, and Shadow could see the thin layer of sweat that was beginning to glisten on the hedge-beast's body. He coughed weakly, his body shaking with each cough, and stared ahead with half closed eyes.

Shadow gasped upon realization.

Something _was_ terribly wrong with Mephiles!

* * *

Thizon looked inside from the back door in total astonishment.

Deep scratches on the tiling, shattered dished and the table was over turned.

Something had happened here.

Where was everyone?

"Dr. Thizon?!"

He turned around and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the white bat.

"Thank goodness… what happened here?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. What are you doing here?"

"I just made some interesting discoveries…" The porcupine set his bags down. "Are you aware that Mephiles has some very unusual traits in his blood normally?"

"How unusual?"

"His blood cells have spikes. Any idea why?"

"Well, he was created by accident from science. That and that a demon used to take up residence in his head… so could that be it?"

"I was going to go with the whole lab-rat thing… but that too." He said. "Now I was told recently, Mephiles had come in contact with a real and a fake Emerald, right?"

"The red one, yes…"

"I did a little test and the two only seem to show reactions with his blood and his blood only. The two did nothing when confronted with other samples. Absolutely nothing. Take a look at this…" He reached into his bag and pulled out a vial, which was now only two-thirds full. "I took two vials and filled them. I only used a few drops on some slides, and found that it had shrunk to three-fourths about a half an hour ago. It's now two thirds…"

"The blood is… evaporating?"

"In a sense… yes. But further study of this had shown that the cells are rapidly shrinking and disappearing altogether… They are doing this on a faster scale without a body to produce more cells to replace them. His blood cells had also gained a slight coloration of purple when he had had contact with the red Emeralds."

"So in other words…" Rouge said slowly, frowning as she made her conclusion in her mind.

"Without reversing this… Mephiles could very well die from internal blood loss slowly… because of the effects the real and the fake Emerald had on him. This has been happening in the past few days, and that is why he's been so ill. His body can't take the rapid loss and replacement of the cells without harboring some side effects. And my guess it that it's been increasing loss over time, despite his rapid healing ability…"

"That's not the only effect those Emeralds had on him…" Rouge sighed.

"What?"

"This might take a while to explain… just follow me; I think I know where he might be…"

* * *

Shadow gently stroked Mephiles on the head, trying to give him something to focus his fading mind on.

Mephiles took some effort into lifting his head up and looked at Shadow with clouded eyes, panting heavily as he shifted his weight to be more comfortable, resting his head on Shadow's lap and closing his eyes.

"… Sha… Shadow… he… help…" He whispered with difficulty, his claws digging into the ground again.

And for the first time ever… Shadow was aware that he could not help his friend at all.

* * *

"So let me get this straight." Thizon fixed his glasses, staring at the bat. "You think that the Emeralds' reaction might have caused Mephiles to… change..?"

"I dunno what to call it, but he's definitely not a hedgehog right now. Or anything else for that matter…"

"Whatever happened to him, we need to try to reverse it fast, or he might not be able to see another day."

"I get that he's dying, okay!?" Rouge snapped at him for no real reason, Thizon taking a jump back. "I get that we have to find him! I get that Emeralds caused this! I get it!"

Thizon blinked and said: "You're… uh… You're pretty close to him… are you?"

"I was the one who saved him from that life of darkness in the beginning." Rouge said, flapping her wings and getting her feet off the ground so that she was hovering. "It was my wish on the purple Emerald that gave him the second chance in life, and helped reawaken the true him. I could think of him know like… maybe a little brother or something like that. I just don't want anything bad to happen to him. He looks to both Shadow and I to keep him from getting hurt."

"I see. That explains why he lives with you two. I figured that he wasn't a relative of Shadow's considering that Black Doom made it pretty known during the invasion that Shadow was the only one of his kind… even if he is a hedgehog… Though Mephiles does bare a vague resemblance to him."

"They're not related… trust me…"

* * *

Mephiles was getting worse as the seconds passed. The arm that was in Shadow's hand was becoming cold to the touch. His muzzle was pale; in fact, his whole fur seemed to be pale. His body shook as a shiver slipped down his spine, and his eyes wandered back and forth as if he was watching something skitter across the forest floor.

He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling too tired to keep them open. Immediately, he was shaken roughly and his eyes snapped open to find themselves staring wearily at a pair of crimson eyes, the hedgehog before him lowering his eyebrows to glare at him.

"As sick as you are…" He said lowly, trying to keep the hedge-beast's attention. "Don't you _dare_ fall asleep…"

Mephiles curled up and wrapped his tail around him, trying to get warmer. His entire body felt cold now. He pushed his head against the hedgehog's hand, which felt very warm to him and urged him to keep petting him.

Shadow complied, hoping that that would help him even the slightest.

Mephiles' breathing was slowing down and then, without warning, his entire body relaxed and fell limp, his head leaning to the side with a soft gasp.

Shadow panicked. Pulling his hand back and touched two fingers under Mephiles' jaw, a faint pulse beat against his fingers and he sighed.

Mephiles was still alive… he had simply fainted.

Or perhaps, it wasn't that simple…

Shadow twitched his ears as he listened to Mephiles' vitals. His breathing was slower than it should be. Taking a closer look, he saw his chest rise slowly, then fall quickly as if the air was being forced out of him. His body jumped as another spasm ran through him.

Shadow hoped that Rouge was able to get a hold of Dr. Thizon… And that Thizon had the answer to this.

He hoped that they would arrive on scene soon… Because at how this was looking…

Mephiles might not have much time left…

* * *

"We found him in the forest earlier. Shadow and I split up, so he went looking for him. The forest isn't very big…" Rouge said. "So it won't be very hard to find one or the other."

"If it's already started effect him, then Mephiles might not be able to move very soon. Too much loss of the blood will start to have its effect…" Thizon rummage through his bag and frowned at one of the vials. It was already three-fourths empty. "I think the loss is taking a rapid turn for the worse. It's only been fifteen minutes, and it's nearly gone." He shook the vial in front of his face.

Rouge gasped and started searching faster.

"Shadow?! Mephiles?! Where are you two?! Shadow?!" She called out loud, twitching her sensitive bat ears to pick up any sounds.

"Rouge?!" Shadow's voice called from the clearing. "Are you there?"

Rouge beat her wings and found Shadow faster than Thizon could run. She gasped when she saw a very pale Mephiles, half curled and limp in front of Shadow. His chest was almost not rising and falling, and Shadow was watching him intently.

"I dunno, but he's very sick right now…" Shadow said, looking up. "Since I found him, he's been in pain, and just looking worse by the minute."

"Shadow, Dr. Thizon figures that Mephiles could actually be dying right now."

"I figured that much…" Shadow said dejectedly, his ears folding back. "As sick as he is right now, it wasn't too hard of a guess…"

Thizon finally caught up with them, panting a bit and leaning against a tree.

"There might be a way to reverse this…" He offered between breaths of air.

"How?" Shadow's ears shot up with curiosity.

"Simple… if the Emeralds caused this, they might be able to fix this as well."

"What if they make it worse..?" Shadow's ears lowered a fraction of an inch slowly.

"Not if we reverse the placement of the Emeralds, and… well, pray."

"Shadow… do you remember how he was holding the Emeralds?" Rouge said, kneeling down beside Mephiles and touching a hand to his cheek. His eyes squeezed tightly for moment and forced themselves open slightly to shift his eyes up at the bat. He whimpered and closed his eyes again, tensing up and relaxing for a moment, a strangled and raspy growl sounding from his throat.

Shadow tried to remember. He remembered that Mephiles was clutching the fake to his chest just before he caught the real one. So if he held the real one to his chest and held the fake out… that might work…

Shadow nodded and explained.

"Now we just need to get the Emeralds." He added at the end.

"Easy said and done…" Thizon quipped and he pulled the two from another compartment in his bag. "I figured we needed these, so I brought them along."

He handed them to Shadow, who nodded and set Mephiles' head down carefully and rolled him onto his back. Placing the real one on Mephiles' chest, Shadow put the fake in his wrapped paw. Mephiles twitched at the touch of the real one immediately, managing to sound off a loud hiss of pain as he writhed on the ground. Thizon and Rouge held him down to keep him steady.

The real one started to glow brightly, illuminating the entire clearing in a fiery glow. Mephiles' body began glowing as well, and with that, they saw a change beginning again. The fangs receded slowly, his quills shortening and springing back together in their perfect clumps. The claws shrank back to normal, as did his tail, his muzzle becoming its original form and his large, dog like nose taking its rightful size as a hedgehog's… or rather, like Rouge's, as it had been when he first gained it from the Emerald's wish. His body shook as the glow localized to the Emerald, which sent it back to fake.

The glowing faded, and Mephiles gasped harshly and moaned: "_… G-get it off…_" while clenching his teeth in pain.

Shadow knocked the Emerald off of his chest, and Mephiles gave a sigh of relief before falling limp again.

Everyone yelped in panic, before laughing at themselves for overreacting when they heard him snoring softly.

Mephiles had simply fallen asleep.

* * *

Lifting his eyelids up to see, Mephiles began regaining full consciousness to the world.

He blinked slowly and opened his eyes wider, before rolling over and hiding his head in his pillow. The morning sun was just too bright for him.

"You're awake now! Good!" Shadow's voice sounded from inside the room.

Mephiles lifted his ears and then his head to look at the ebony and crimson hedgehog, who was grinning at him broadly.

"Feel any better?"

"Much actually… and this time I mean it…" Mephiles said without having to pause for a breath. "Y'know, I just had the craziest of dreams… you wouldn't believe it…"

Shadow was about to say something, but Rouge gave what seemed to be a bit of a cough and Shadow thought better of it.

"Tell us about it…" He said.

Mephiles sat up on the couch, scratching a finger behind his ear in thought, before giggling at how absurd it might sound.

"Maybe because it was because I was so sick earlier… but I dreamt that I had become a were-hog because of the Emerald's reaction. I was really shaggy, and I stood on my toes. My tail was really long too…"

"Hm… weird…" Rouge said.

"I know, but that's not the whole of it." Mephiles nodded. "Apparently, the Emeralds had messed with my blood, and I was losing it all rather quickly because it was deteriorating. I was dying in the forest before you guys and that doctor found me, and you managed to reverse the effects and save me before I lost too much. Shadow was with me the whole time, trying to keep me awake. He shook me a few times too. It was really… odd… why would I have dreamt that up?"

"… Perhaps… your fever..?" Shadow offered slowly.

"Maybe… But, either way… at least I'm not sick anymore…"

"So very true…" Rouge said with a smile. "You want anything to eat? It's been a while since you have."

"Oh, yes, please!" Mephiles said excitedly, his tail wagging from side to side in spite of himself.

As Rouge looked through the pantry for waffle mix, she looked at Shadow and whispered: "Think we should tell him it wasn't a dream?"

Shadow peered out of the doorway to look at Mephiles, who was scratching the back on his head. Suddenly, he frowned and tugged a twig from his quills, his eyes wide with confusion.

"Naw… I think he's figured it out already…" Shadow whispered back just as Mephiles said very worriedly: "_Guys?!_"

* * *

Ol' Rae's given quite an ending. What did you think? Longest oneshot I've ever written. I hope you liked it :D


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